(Cady)Hey all!
It is once again my day to write the blog. It seems like yesterday that I did my last entry, so that must mean that time here is really flying. I hope everyone is having a great February vacation right now skiing, beaching or whatever it is you're doing. AND if that's the case then congratulations on reading the blog while on break. Either you have nothing better to do or we really ARE as amusing to read about as rumor tells. Whatever the case may be, here I am in a new internet cafe, the biggest one we've been to yet (with very comfy chairs I might add), in Xi'an writing for your entertainment and enlightenment (we hear a lot about the whole enlightenment thing here, you know, Buddhists and all).
Last night we finally met the famous Richard! I am sure that Em, who is also here writing her blog for yesterday, will mention that, but I thought that I might as well emphasize the fact. We have decided that meeting Richard is about the equivalent of finally seeing Charlie in "Charlie's Angels," though I don't think anyone actually ever does see Charlie. So I guess we're really lucky to meet Richard. It's immediately apparent why Viz and Richard hit it off so well. He's one of those crinkly laugh-lines around the eyes kind of guys (he really does laugh at everything). Actually, he even laughs at everything HE says, though not at all in a pretentious way. We've decided that, aside from Kathy, he's our favorite guide so far. Although, Richard is really more of a friend of the whole exchange than just another guide, so it's really only natural that we like him.
Let's see, health updates. Team China is becoming a little more run down, though we're still going at full speed, don't worry! Drew is still coughing, I'm on my antibiotic now too, and Nick and Emily are getting a bit more sniffly. All in all though, we're holding out very well. This morning "sleep in" was literally written into the itinerary. And that's exactly what we did. Emily managed to sleep through our wake up call, my alarm clock, and me saying "Em, it's 9:15"....."Em it's 9:25".... "Emily get UP!" Finally, after pounding my fist on the bedside table a couple of times, we were both awake and ready to crawl down to breakfast. Actually, Team China is usually up a lot earlier than that, believe me, it's a rare occasion that we sleep so late. Our legs were all quite sore today as a result of many, many stairs climbed yesterday. Ric's words exactly I believe were, "god, it feels like I spent a whole day at the gym." I suppose we're not ones to be complaining though. When Team China returns to the States with massive leg muscles you'll all know why.
We didn't leave the hotel until 10:30 today, which is a super late start for us, but it was good since we had such a long day yesterday. We decided to give our legs a rest today and save biking along the city walls of Xi'an for tomorrow, therefore the terra-cotta warriors were bumped up. We went to a ceramics "factory" first. They make high quality replicas of the terra-cotta warriors in all different sizes. We didn't see them getting made, since most of the workers are still on holiday for the new year, but we got some background on the warriors and how the actual ones and the replicas are made. You can actually tell which type of soldier each warrior is by how he's dressed and how his hair is styled. The ones with nice armor and two bun are generals. I believe our guide said that of the thousands of excavated warriors, there were only seven generals. The men with flat caps are cavalry men, and are usually standing next to horses. There are kneeling soldiers who are archers, and then foot soldiers who can be identified because they only have one bun on top of their heads. They had replicas of each different type of soldier made, which of course were for sale. The process is actually pretty interesting. Each warrior is hollow, their bodies are made by pressing coils into a mold. So essentially each life-sizes terra-cotta warrior is a coil pot. When they come out of the molds they are touched up individually. The original warriors all had custom sculpted heads, which is pretty neat because just like actual humans, no two are exactly alike. I'm getting ahead of myself now. Or a HEAD... ha ha. Anyways, they made other ceramic pieces there as well such as beautiful (and expensive!) tile murals, and sculptures in the Tang dynasty tri-color porcelain style. Basically we ended up shopping there for a while, getting gifts for people and whatnot, until we were thoroughly milked for all we were worth. After that it was on to the real terra-cotta warriors!
Well, first we had lunch. Delicious as always, even though thinking about a traditional Chinese lunch makes me a little squeamish now, after puking one up on the boat ride to see the big Buddha (thus one of the reasons I am on antibiotics now). That may be too much information, I apologize. Actually, once the food is in front of me, all thoughts of being sick go out the door and I am quite happy to chow down. Em and I have been brainstorming for the last five minutes trying to remember why lunch today was so good, aside from the fact that they brought out cookies in the end. Well, there were a lot of good veggie dishes. Anyways, the warriors! First we watched about half of a film on the terra-cotta warriors which was supposed to be shown on screens the encircled an entire room. Only two screens were working however, and the english subtitles/translations weren't working either, so we really just watched the pretty pictures for a while and observed what it was like to be in a room with more white people than we've seen thus far in China. The warriors are a big tourist destination as you can imagine. Next we visited the largest excavation site of warriors. There's hundreds of them just lined up in these pits, guarding the tomb of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty and the lands to the east that he united under him. He actually built the army of terra-cotta warriors to protect him his "afterlife." To the ancient Chinese, humans were comprised of two parts; the visible body, and the invisible soul. The body lives in the yang "world," which is the light side, but once we die the soul lives on in the yin "world," which is the dark side of the symbol we all know. So, the first emperor of China built an army of thousands of ceramic warriors to guard himself and his kingdom in the yin world. For the record, this is also the emperor who built the great wall, so he was eccentric to say the least.
It was really amazing to see all of the warriors lined up in the earthen pits. They are all so realistic, and it's incredible to think that each one is unique. When they were originally made, they were painted very colorfully. Once the Qin Dynasty fell apart and rebels invaded, they burned all of the emperor's grounds, and the wooden roofs that were protecting the warriors collapsed, which is what caused a lot of the damage to them. There are still a LOT of warriors that haven't been excavated yet, and Richard says that they probably won't be any time soon. Seeing the warriors is pretty mind boggling simply because there are so many of them, and each one is so detailed. They have a museum with a couple of the warriors from the from the second pit, which can't be visited right now because it's under renovation right now (all of China always seems to be under renovation). Since they are some of the most intact warriors, the detailing on the is really amazing. The kneeling archer has combed hair and braids in the back. Even his shoes are incredibly realistic- you can see the treads on the bottom of the shoes. Considering the Qin Dynasty only lasted about 50 years, it's absolutely incredible to imagine that all of these warriors and the great wall were made in such a short period of time (less even). Drew said today that seeing the warriors was almost less interesting than he thought it would be because we've already seen so many pictures of them and learned about them in school. On the other hand, I remember reading on one of the previous blogs that someone thought that seeing the real warriors after hearing about them for so long was the truly amazing part. Either way you look at it, it's impossible to look at the hundreds of statues and not imagine the huge amount of work that went in to making them. The fact that they could be reconstructed so perfectly, that a piece of history can be so well preserved, was a reminder that our own culture is so young. The warriors are over 2,000 years old, yet we can stand there and observe them as if they were made just the other day. We also saw incredibly detailed bronze statues of horses and chariots that were excavated along with the warriors. I imagine finding the warriors and everything else found around the emperor's tomb (which has never actually been opened) would have been a field day for archaeologists. Kind of like winning the lottery.
So, we had a good day full of terra-cotta warriors and the works. Dinner was dumplings! We went to a restaurant that really does specialize almost exclusively in dumplings. The really interesting part is that they make each dumpling in the shape of what type of animal meat is inside. So, for example, the spicy chicken dumplings were shaped like little chickens. It was very cute and barbaric at the same time. And by that, naturally I mean delicious. My favorite were probably the vegetable and pork dumplings. Some of the other really strange (but GOOD) varieties included pumpkin dumplings and walnut dumplings. They must have brought us about fifteen different types of dumplings. At the end we got dumpling soup, with tiny ones, which determined your fortune based on hour many dumplings you got. Terry and I both got three, Drew got two, Rick and Em both got one, and poor Nick got no dumplings. Hopefully he'll come back from China in one piece, you never know. Anyways, after that we came to the internet, and now here we are.
So, despite some small setbacks in health, Team China is doing very well. Not to mention eating very well. Since you have probably just ready Em's entry for yesterday AND mine for today, you are probably very China-ed out. So, adios. Enjoy your Feb. break everyone!
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